Since its inception Vodafail.com has made a significant
contribution towards raising awareness of the problems and issues faced
by Vodafone customers.

Vodafone Australia customers have had the opportunity to voice their concerns, their fears and their troubles from every corner of Australia and beyond our borders.
You have gathered the courage to stand up for your rights as consumers and to make your voice heard.

Each and every person who shared their story should have a sense of pride in this achievement and the changes that have occurred since the start of Vodafail.com.

More recently, traffic to Vodafail.com has declined significantly.
Having achieved the goal of raising awareness and promoting concrete action in early 2011, we have now reached the point of closing Vodafail to new complaints.
The site will remain online for as long as possible as a
reminder and an example of what is possible when we share our experiences.

It has been a privilege to run this initiative
and I'm am forever grateful for the help and support I've received. In
particular I would like to thank Melissa, David and Travis for their
continued efforts over the past 15 months. I'm also thankful and humbled by the support of ACCAN, Choice magazine and a wide range of media outlets, blogs and websites.

The Vodafail Report

I started this website out of frustration for Vodafone's customer
service and ongoing network problems. It was designed to bring attention
to the issues and show that aggrieved Vodafone customers are not alone.
For the past month Vodafone customers and employees from all around
Australia have shared their stories, the time they spent on hold and
their phone reception details with Vodafail.com. Thank you for your
openness and contributions.

The information you shared has been analysed and compiled into a
report. The report aims to provide an insight into scale and complexity
of Vodafone's issues, the causes and the potential resolutions that may
be acceptable to the affected customers. The report is available in full
on this page and on Thursday January 20th 2011, this report was
submitted to the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Australian Communication
& Media Authority (ACMA).

Vodafone Hutchison Australia is the only company who can solve the
problems of its own making and the Australian Government has the power
to ensure future problems are less likely and more quickly resolved. The
Australian Communication Consumer
Action Network (ACCAN), the Telecommunications
Industry Ombudsman (TIO) and the Privacy
Commissioner continue to be vital in ensuring consumers' rights are
respected and that issues are aired. Those organisations have the
responsibility and that is where the attention should be focused.

The media in all its forms has brought these issues of public concern
to the forefront of the public's minds. Vodafail has helped to organise
that effort and if you are still experiencing problems with your
Vodafone services please follow the steps on our 'How
To Complain' page. Please direct any media inquiries regarding
Vodafone's issues to Vodafone
or the ACCAN. The
ACCAN has released a statement
about this report and the ongoing Vodafone issues.

I moved to a country area. spoke many times with vodafone.rebooted phone lost all contacts.i refused to pay bill until solved. $47 i owed. turned phone off for 12months. made contact with vodafone. still no reception..rang back 2011 Nov sick of waiting and they said i had another bill outstanding payed $140+ with out asking. this was the $47 plus expenses....hadnt used my phone or turned it on in 12months....they got the money out of me as i just wanted to pay and get out of there...GUESS WHAT i just found out today 15/3/12 they defaulted me on the $47 dollars and i cant borrow money. they failed to notify me of default..it was done out of spite because of my anger i believe....

In the last week I have only been receiving about 1/4 of my incoming calls. I keep having my calls go directly to voicemail even when I have a signal and I'm not on the phone. Its starting to make me worry about the calls I am missing, hopefully they arent anything important.

I cashed in my bouns bank and got a phone and also paid for one in dec I'm still waiting I have ring and sent emails to vodefone and Australian Air Express and all I have got is the run around this is gone be on a joke as one of the phone was a brithday gift

VF100396206 tracking for the 555 Nokia white

VF100393002 tracking for the other Nokia C2-01sliver Vx352053

Vx432936 (PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED)(PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED)I would like a answer or a replacement for my missing phones I'm so sick of calling vodefone and try to explain my problem

25 Feb 2012 02:40:36 PM: I've had to remove your personal details as we don't allow personal information to be posted on the site. If you haven't received your phone you should check out our 'how to complain' page and give Vodafone a call. Failing that you can always lodge a complaint with the TIO.

I just moved to Wollongong for uni and my samsung galaxy fit has terrible phone reception. There may be reasons such as the recent bad weather or the fact my phone is not the best but i had the same reception issues 6 hours down the coast in Merimbula. Vodafone does offer great recharge value but what is the point when you never have good reception?

I am on Vodafone's infinite plan. I pay $45 a month for infinite calls and Iphone. I was charged $638 last month because of 3G data usage. Vodafone never warned me about excessive data usage. I rung their customer service centre in Mumbai several times and I waited for hours, just adding to the plight of getting hand balled. Finally I got to speak to their (PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED), who refused to reimburse $638. I was told that there is no other choice but to pay the money. They have disconnected my service too. I have taken this matter to TIO now. Thank God for TIO. Vodafone is a greedy multi national corporate giant who has no good intentions about its customers. Instead, it has a bullying policy where if you do not pay what they ask you to, they just disconnect your phone. I am very lucky to live in a country like Australia where we have an independent ombudsman and ACCAN. I advice people not to sign up with Vodafone. They are very greedy and dodgy.

Short story is in 2008 I paid out my contract and cancelled it. Asked if it was all paid of to which was told yes
Months later I find out I have been black listed on my credit rating due to not paying a bill of $161.81. Has completely screwed my chances of getting any financial loan at all since.
Have just started trying to chase it up after all this time to try and get it removed but ultimately don't like my chances of that happening.

I start using vodafone again after they advertise the new network promising to be alot better than the failed network but recently im experencing incall drops and turtle slow 3G internet. This network sucks. Im not going to use it anymore.

Vodafone swapped me to a new 850 network with new phone and modem at 3938. I'm one hour from Melbourne and after reading the advertising for their mega modem, realise that the new network is surely only in small regions of the CBD?! No wonder all the upgrade commercials equal zero difference in regional Australia. I can no longer complain to Vodafone as I am banned from all social networking sites after posting technical data from this region. I'm trying to get tat addressed but hey chose not to respond which is very unprofessional.

I'm on a 70$ plan for voda but they charged me 717$ for the 1 month. The service got disconnected when they said I reached already like 500$ but then when the bill came it was 717$ when ithaca already been disconnected!! Ithink Vodafone abused customers because they could have send warning when you are exceeding above your plan. They should not wait till its over hundreds already. Before they disconnect the service. And what I don't understand is it's disconnected and I have to pay more

Well I guess I fell for the "$1 billion network upgrade" stuff on TV, and bought a phone from them under the proviso that according to their blog my location would be upgraded by the end of this week, this week has come and gone and my data speeds remained slower than dial-up, they gave 2 gigabytes per month (the only reason I needed the phone) but they may as well have promised 5 billion gigabytes because you simply can't use it.

They initially promised 3 months free which sounded great, but you can only cancel your service on the Vodafone Network Guarantee in the first 30 days - which means there was a high probability of me getting stuck with a contract that I couldn't use.

I ordered a Mobile Broadband device too, but after this I am now going to *refuse delivery* of it.

Don't buy the network upgrade stuff, at the very least wait until they say it's fully complete; even then I would just pay the extra and get Telstra - who actually work already.

20411 Someone from NSW thinks the report is high bills! at 23 Dec 2011 05:33:54 PM

I signed on for a contract 2 years ago with vodafail for an Iphone 3G on a $79 cap. The last couple of months I have been getting really expensive bills like up to $150 over my cap. Deciding to cancel my contract, VP told me that they don't sell 3G contracts anymore and the $79 internet plan doesn't exist so that's why i've been getting expensive bills and if i upgrade my bills would go down. I don't understand how they can sign someone up for a 2 year cap and then it outdate. I complained and they offered me 50% off my recent bill, but I have honestly spent hundreds of dollars on bills and feel like my contract should be paid out. Do I have a leg to stand on if i take this further?

20403 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Some of you should read before complaining... at 22 Dec 2011 03:09:00 PM

20143 from NSW, this site is supposed to be to register real issues.
The international call rates are clearly listed here http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/services/idd/international-calling/index.htm and can be found by selecting "calling overseas" from the plans dropdown menu at the top of the screen. Vodafone might be fairly useless, but you're the one that can't perform a simple click on the screen...

20143 Someone from NSW thinks the report is Service at 30 Nov 2011 08:07:14 PM

I'm considering moving to Optus after 12 years of unrewarded loyalty to Vodafail.

I checked their deals, clearly outlined, on their website. In particular I wanted to know the per minute charge for calls to Cambodia on the plan I wanted. In its country by country breakdown, the site told me it would be $1.35 per minute.

For comparison, I checked the Vodafail site. No such information. So I called. And eventually got through to an apparently offshore operator. The line was poor. I asked how much the per minute rate would be to call Cambodia on my current plan. She put me on hold for a while then returned with these words.
'I'm afraid I can't tell you. Please call back later.'
I laughed. This is a perfect illustration of why I'm changing carriers.

Tremendously facing problem with call drop outs during network connection. One of my friends asked me have you been in holiday for last five days?...as he has been trying to reach my mobile since last 5 days. I'm living in Southern River. Mostly I get call drop out/ some time out of network and bad line. I'm frustrated with Vodafail service.

I have discovered in the six months that I have had my new phone from Vodafone it is increasing losing network reception in my area. I recently approached my local Vodafone store to see if the poor reception on my mobile phone could be addressed and hopefully rectified. At the store I turned off my phone to have it examined and was told that my SIM card was quite old and maybe replacing it would fix the reception issues. I agreed to replace the SIM card but whilst I was in the Vodaphone store the employee tried but failed to bring up my contract details on Vodafone's computer database in order to document the change of SIM card details. I was asked to come back in 30 mins so that the computer could be rebooted and try documenting the SIM card changeover again. During that 30 minute wait I noticed that my phone's network reception was working perfectly and when I went back to the store I informed the same employee that the phone's reception was fine but that I held concerns the phone worked well in the shopping centre because there were many mobile towers surrounding it but when I got the phone home I feared the reception issues would resurface. As it happened the problems were still there when I got the phone home again. I am anticipating that if I return to the Vodafone store I'd be told the same thing again and round and round I go. Is there a way to get Vodafone to take effective action to resolve the network issue as I use my mobile phone for business. I understand that I am one of tens of thousands of Vodafone mobile phone service customers with a grievance with the Telco and that my comments might not be taken seriously or worst still lost in the crowd but I felt that my concerns about Vodafone's complacent attitude and failure to honour their part of the contract needed to be exposed.

The Vodafone network is very bad and it always makes me in trouble because I am a doctor and I have to be on call all the time and when the hospital call me for any serious patient , I am always out of my signal so makes me in big trouble most of the time and I have to carry other provider mobile along with this because this is my very old number and everyone contacts on this no only..
I am very much angry with this problem and I complained before but there is no effort from Vodafone side.

I have only been with Vodafone for half-a-year and I already had to deal with their customer service 4-5 times.

The most recent one was they charged me $400 (from the $49/mth plan). Had to go through with them and they mentioned I exceeded my internet plan by 1.8Gb (from 1Gb) plan. I asked them how so? They said I need to disable Data plan everytime on Wi-Fi, WTF?? Do they know the difference between 3G and WiFi? And pretty sure Android OS automatically sends/receives data through WiFi channel instead of 3G channel once the WiFi icon shows up.

And of course I NEVER used up all my quote, i normally use 150-200Mb of data per month and switched to WiFi whenever is possible. But their Customer Service mentions something like this: "If it shows up on our system this is something that you gotta pay regardless", right so if it shows up 10Gb of rogue data in your system, then we would'be charged thousands of $$$? For something we NEVER used in the first place? Thanks Vodafone, you need to get out of your 'socialist' mindset.

And this is another frustration after a few months of network connectivity issues (of course).

I've had Vodafone Mobile Broadband since about January 2011. Have never had decent service. I live in Murarrie, QLD which is supposed to be a high-speed, high-reception network.

Internet drops out constantly, is ridiculously slow and most times I can't even connect to it. When I can, I only receive 2 to 3 out of 5 bars of reception.

I have been writing on the Vodafone Forums along with hundreds of other mobile broadband customers all over Australia who are experiencing the same problems. Vodafone Moderaters continue to delete posts that they say "aren't nice" or "bring Vodafone's brand into disrepute" and they don't seem to be able to (or want to) fix the problem or compensate customers for services they are paying for but not receiving.

I have emailed this information to the Editor at the Courier Mail to see if there would be any interest and intend on contacting the TIO to have this resolved. I'm absolutely disgusted with Vodafone's lack of care for this situation.

Can I comPlaint about three network as well? They charged me over $200 for data roaming on my mobile within 7 days just because there is problem with their own network and I am absolutely within their broadband zone!
I didn't use much Internet during hose days either, mostly background software and whatsapp.
I also check the done status quite often to observe and it's icon is always 3G whenever I check.
Please let me know what steps should I take.
Thanks

8 Aug 2011 09:05:13 PM: You'll have to contact three customer service first and then tell them all the problems you are having. Make a record of when you called them and what they tell you. Also have in mind exactly what you want (sounds like you want to get rid of that $200 charge) and be persistent. If they don't sort it out then you can go to the TIO (details on the how to complain page).

18745 Someone from VIC thinks the report is NO SERVICE BLACKSPOTS at 16 Jul 2011 08:03:06 AM

I have a crazy John Mobile Broadband prepaid. I have been told that they are now owned by Vodaphone and are on the Vodaphone network. When you check coverage you are referred to a Vodaphone Web Site.

Despite assurances from the sales person that my home would have good coverage and service, when I got it home and plugged it into my Laptop, it said "NO SERVICE"!.

I took it back to the shop complete with Laptop, where it worked OK. The inference seemed to be that it was a "Dummy Customer" problem. But back at home there was still no service. There was no more the shop could do and they gave me the call centre phone number!

A phone call to their call centre got me a frustrating conversation with a polite young Indian man with a perfect English accent and little comprehension of what he was doing! After telling me to uninstall the software and then reinstall it and reboot the computer, (which of course didn't work) he was obviously out of answers with nowhere else to go, so we said our friendly farewells, and I still had NO SERVICE!

Then someone told me about WOKTENNAS. It works a bit like a satellite dish. You hang the modem at the focal point of a parabolic Chines cooking Wok, where the signal is reflected concentrated and intensified. The person who told me about it was a former Telstra Engineer. He had gone from "no signal" to 100%! So I bought a wok and set it up.

I immediately got a signal and was able to connect. However I wasn't as lucky with signal strength improvement. Connection was only 2G and VERY slow. Less than dial up speed!! However later on, after about 8-00 pm, I tried again and found signal strength increased and I was able to connect 3G at useful speeds. However dropouts were still frequent!

That is how it used to happen 65 years ago with my first crystal radio! Wireless signals were always better at night than during the day.

Just 400 meters away from my place, at the home of one of my daughters, it worked perfectly all the time without having to resort to the WOK. However at the home of another daughter, 24 km away on the other side of town, I had to use the woktenna again. I got 3G and faster connection speeds there but still only about HALF what I got with a Telstra DONGLE. (see below)

A few days after I bought the Crazy John Dongle, my sister gave me her old Telstra wireless broadband dongle and I bought a new SIM card for it. What a difference! Everywhere I have tried it so far it ALWAYS connects 3G, and connection speeds are ALWAYS quite good.

I hear Vodaphone are supposed to be upgrading their network, but I am not sure what that might mean for the local blackspot problems I have experienced. However that is now irrelevant!! Telstra recharges seem to cost quite a bit more but their service does work!! And I think it might be a better modem!

I have been with Vodafone for over 8 years and in the beginning they were god but now im even thinking of going to telstra, at least id get coverage i pay for not slow data and missed calls and NO SIGNAL on my screen whats the good of 4gb data if you cant use it i can drive from the city to the gold coast and get over 9 loss of network messages doesnt mater what phone nokia iphone samsung same problem!

18653 Someone from Somewhere else thinks the report is Lack of Signal and failure of Customer Service at 7 Jul 2011 07:10:21 PM

9 Jul 2011 04:26:31 PM: Hi John,

Thanks for letting us know. You can contact the TIO (details on the 'how to complain' page) and they will force Vodafone to call you and give you a response within 10 days. If you are having that many problems and vodafone hasn't been able to sort it out then you should be able to get out of your contract early.

Try and keep track of the times you contacted vodafone and the issues you encountered as that will help the TIO process your complaint. If Vodafone isn't providing the service then you shouldn't have to continue on the contract.

I live in Pascoe Vale, Melbourne, Vic and vodafone's reception has reduced significantly over the last 6-12 months. On average my phone will drop out approximately 1 time for every 10 minutes of talk time. Vodafone was previously a great and up and comming network....the telco has fallen a long way in a short period of time......very disappointing!

17913 Someone from NSW thinks the report is Vodafone... you've lost a 7 year customer at 12 May 2011 09:57:51 AM

Having been with Vodafone for over 7 years as a Pre Paid Customer, I have finally reached the end of my tether. I can't begin to express my frustration here and reount my experience of the past week and the poor service I have received, but let's just say after 7 years as a loyal customer, (and a total spend of more than $6000)I am switching Telcos immediately. Never before have I been more disappointed in a company as they continue to fail their customers. Way to go Vodafone, and Mr Dewes, you really need to do something about your staff in the Vodafone George Street Sydney store.

17 May 2011 09:16:38 AM: SAME WITH THE STORE IN HURSTVILLE WESTFIELDS I WAS AT THE COUNTER THE LADY WAS ON THE REGISTER WITH A CUSTOMER SO I WAS WAITING NO OTHER PEOPLE IN THE STORE
THERE WAS A CHINESE GUY SAID 1 SEC ILL BE WITH YOU WENT OUT THE BACK ANOTHER CUSTOMER WALKED IN THEN WENT STRAIT TO HER THE CHINESE GUY THEN THE LADY WITH THE VAIL WENT FOR LUNCH AND WALKED OUT I LAUGHED AND WALKED OUT WHAT A JOKE VODA NOT ONLY YOUR SERVICE IS CRAP BUT LOOKS LIKE YOUR STAFF AND CUSTOMER SERVICE TOO KEEP IT UP WHAT A COMPANY YOU JOKERS NOW WONDERING WHY EVERYONE IS LEAVING WAKE UP TO YOURSELVES THEN WINGE AND CRY AFTER WHEN THINGS FAIL

I have a problem with call drop outs during the network connection transition from one type to another such as 3G to EDGE. Most of the time I get a call drop out and a bad line. Weekly occurrence of up to 40 drop outs mostly in Southern River.

17576 Someone from WA thinks the report is Vodafone is a vodafail in WA at 29 Apr 2011 11:40:21 PM

Ok, so i have been with Vodafone for about 5 years now, and like most of you, thought it was great until 3 and Vodafone merged.

Then there was the day last year without reception, and last sunday i couldn't send an sms?? who does that?? Sure, if you live over East the reception works without a hitch. But over here, step 45mins outside of Perth, and reception is dodgy. Then if you travel up north you pretty much are without a phone until Geraldton! No wonder people are turning to Telstra. Perth is expanding, and the fact that the outer suburbs are without reception is plain ridiculous!

AND not to mention customer service! I went to put my phone in for repairs LAST year, and i still not heard back from them....so what the.

My Dad has been with Vodafone for at least 6 years and has been using the $79 flexi-cap and hasn't ever wanted to change networks. Before vodafone he was with Optus and it was absolutely crap! he got crap customer service and crap bills that charge you for doing simple tasks! So you make the decision, Do you want to change to a network that send you huge pointless bills, that have crap customer service and when you have a problem, say its your problem and not theirs? If No, well give Vodafone a chance and let them fix the problems because as you should know, EVERYBODY MAKES MISTAKES.

29 Apr 2011 11:45:06 PM: Well its pretty bad here in the West (I'm from WA)
Its like, NSW is central, and therefore all of their efforts gets poured into there. Forget the rest of us.
Glad to hear someone is having a good time on Vodafone though!

I am not saying that any of this isn,t true, but i have been with vodafone for at least 3 years and haven't had a problem. Yeah there reception might be a little crap but apart for that I am pretty happy to continue using vodafone.

I finally ceased my contract with vodafail (it took me literally going into a store and telling potential customers in front of employees not to sign up). I am now in $100 credit and was told over the phone that they can send me a cheque but that unfortunately, the address that I live at does not exist. I am apparently without a postal address and I cannot recieve a cheque unless I live somewhere. Suicidal levels of rage.

That Vodafone sux because i am getting charged for $108 cap plan for something i am not getting my money worth. Lack of sms sending, not to mention mms, phone calls dropping out, not reception, connection fail and i am getting charged on average an extra $24 a month for no apparent reason. Screw you vodafone, your going down

16644 Someone from VIC thinks the report is lied to and still taking my money at 3 Apr 2011 10:10:21 PM

I had Vodafone mobile broadband. After 4 months, the download speed became unusable. I reported it and was told and engineer would look into it. I heard nothing for 1 week so called them again. They told me there was no problem, so I explained there was, as I downloading was so slow I couldn't really surt the net. I eventually got my contact cancelled and argued that I shouldn't have to pay the cancellation fee. They said they would send me a bag to return the device. After 5 weeks of waiting and calling them 10 times and being told each time it had been sent, it finally turned up, having been sent only a day earlier, so I had been lied to all along. Now I've noticed they still stealing payments from my account even though I cancelled the contract 5 weeks ago. They are liars and theives. This is the first and last time I will ever go with Vodafone, they are a disgrace.

Vodafail won't release me from my contract because "it works in your area". My "area" is ALL 500+ suburbs of Brisbane and no Vodafail, it DOESN'T work, otherwise why the hell was I talking to you???!!!

They offered me $10/month off till the network was upgraded (due in April, apparently, so that's a grand total of $10 for 1 month). I declined. They asked if I'd considered switching to 3. I declined. They offered me a new handset. I declined. They waived my last unpaid bill and the next 3 months' charges.

16300 Someone from NSW thinks the report is Customer Service at 15 Mar 2011 01:01:39 AM

Hi All,
It's 01:59am AEST, I have been on a queue now for 1hour 27 minutes and 21 seconds to speak to some one about the bullshit reception, I am getting tired of the Vodafone bitch saying messages like "hang in their, we'll be with you soon". Since that time I've been able to watch a 1 hour Youtube lecture the CEO of Vodafone Mr. Arun Sarin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwjOFetP7fI&feature=relmfu)spreading his bullshit. I have also been able to write this message and spell check it.The second I get to a customer rep, I am going to rip them and their manager a new one. This is a fucking joke.

15791 Someone from VIC thinks the report is Poor Service at 21 Feb 2011 06:36:45 PM

I am in Langwarrin, VIC, which is part of metro Melbourne and my phone continually go's flat because it is roaming looking for a signal the whole time. I get voice mail messages continually when the phone has never rung. And as far as using the internet is concerned I honestly don't even bother now because it is that bad. Look the fact is I have been with them for the past 4 years because they offered much better value than Telstra at the expense obviously of network coverage. But now that Telstra is now so much more competitive and Vodafones network capability has become so critically bad, why would anyone stay even if they are offering unlimited caps. Anyone who operates their own business would have rocks in their head to run with Vodafone. You simply could not take the risk.

I was told I had Global Roaming on my phone but when we in New Zealand it would not work. We went into two Vodafone Stores for help. Most of the time the sales staff went to pains to explain the were not in anyway connected to Vodafone Australia or "any of there mess". They apparently have people in all the time asking for help but there are no number that can be phoned for help. In fact they offered to sell us a NZ sim to use in our phone -we went to Telecom NZ. My contract ends on 28 Feb -i joing Telstra on 1 March. Does the parent company care about its brand or do they just offer crap service world wide?

I have been with Vodafone for 3 years and have had the odd drop out here and there but in the last couple of months of constant dropout, excruciating slow internet (if not at all) and complaints to Apple regarding my iphone, I now find out it wasn't the phone's fault but rather the network that I'm with!

Vodafone Customer Service is no better only trying to compensate the last 6 months of subpar service with a mere 25% off my bill for 2 months! Unacceptable! I want to speak to a real Vodafone consultant, not one from India!

15645 Someone from WA thinks the report is Dropout - is it intentional? at 16 Feb 2011 02:18:01 PM

I have been with 3 for a few years, a benefit being I can regularly speak for free to a friend also on 3 in Melbourne. No problems till Vodaphone bought 3. Then, every time, within a few minutes, the call drops out. We realised after a few months of this, that this is probably intentional; Vodaphone want to get rid of those 'freeloaders' on 3. Now we are timing how long it takes for Vodaphone to cut us off; it's so specific a time it can't be co-incidence: has to be the service provider's system. What a bunch of toads.

Basically its crap. it can take over 30 mins just to log on. Can you imagine trying to do banking or trying to download a job application form with continuous network dropouts. And i pay money for this "great" service! Dialup is quicker. The phone is also crap. I now have to walk out to the mailbox just to make a call. Not very nice in the rain. It wasnt like that a month ago. So therefore it is getting worse. Again, i pay money for this "great" service.

My calls and Internets service is so crap, I cant even say its crap, at least crap is something I can deal with. Its not worth the money I spend on it. 49dollar plan. People are complaining they cant hear me. I'm losing out.

My internet is slow like snail, I can't make use of it, and its not reliable gee it take forever to load.

over all just Crap. I want to get out of my plan. I want to get out as fast as I can,,I will spread the word that this is the crappiest network ever - not that they don't know already. I'd rather pay a higher package to get reliable service.

My god what kind of business are you running. I so sorry for the words im using but this is frustrating as hell. 49dollar a month for WHAT!!!!!! a brick???? an mp3 player a camera..BUT NOT a PHONE, not a smart device to surf the internet...

15431 Someone from NSW thinks the report is No Service at 10 Feb 2011 07:21:26 AM

I hate speaking to Vodafone Customer service you cant understand them, Plus i have to go without 3G cos its their fault. It's like when you say that you have no service they dont know that its down, how dont they know its down shouldn't a computer tell them!!!

Plus on Australia Day i had no service and i was only in Austinmer & Corrimal!!

i would love to leave vodafone & go with telstra or someone else but i still have 8 months left on a $79 cap

I think vodafone is the most unorganized business going nd today... After u wait on the phone for more then a hour and a half to resolve the phones shit reception and 2gig Internet I never use u get some Indian telling me the networks are fine....news to you idiots your networks are shit and not worth being on I'm gunna try to cAncell

Extremely dissapointed after 7 Years with Vodafone average call spend $500 per month. The cost to my business is unfare. We are forced to use land lines to make reliable calls to customers and this is at our exspense.Customers can not reach us and when they can calls drop out.
Plus wrong billing. And ofcourse waiting over one hour on hold to get service only to be cut off after 3 transfers and not given a call back? come on!

The usual crap that people are getting, from poor signal to no data connection. Some location works great but MAKE SURE YOU DON"T MOVE. Moving may risk dropping your connection to 1 bar. I have to divert my phone to the office everyday and switch it to flight mode as my new phone gets drained of battery when it constantly attempts to search for signal.

To top it off, i was billed excess when i was under my call limit. Furthermore website was down last week when i attempt to check my usage and it is down today when i was confirming my usage cap to my bill

Only the operator, some guy in India, goes through a serious of rather trivial questions 1- did you use the usb modem on another PC 2- did you try your sim with another usb modem 3- does your service stay connected?

His guy concludes that its a problem with my simcard, despite me having two separate mobile broadband services, separate sims, separate usb modem, both happen to have a problem with the sim card? what a joke.

I told him you are lying, and he starts to stumble over his words... Then I tell him Im a network engineer, and I told him the real issue is that the network is oversubscribed and there is simply not enough network capacity because of the many iphone and mobile broadband users out there. What they need to do is upgrade their network from using E1's to fibre gigabit ethernet, which they simply cannot do as Telstra owns the majority of the conduit in the ground by which the fibre is laid.

The Indian consultant goes away for a VERY LONG time, comes back, and continues to parrot the same thing about a problem with my sim card, more BS, and is adamant the service and network is fine. Also boasting that vodafone has 10,000,000 customers so therefore the network must be great.

They are obviously lying and denying the problem with the network, i will cancel this service, and will call back, give em hell guys!

15 Feb 2011 07:21:14 AM: I had a very similar response from idiot voda man!

I used vodafone since it came in to Aus that a long time now, Vodafone has been great in our area at Little River Vic, this was true until the merge with three(3). It is supose to be a strong 3G area acording to the vodafone coverage maps. (bull sh..t). My phone is now continually searching fo a connection. and even if i manage to get one its short lived and no data comes through. my wife I have 5 months to go on our contracts we are going to pay out the contract if nessasary and then chang over to Telsta

15202 Someone from NSW thinks the report is GET OUT at 4 Feb 2011 11:37:08 AM

Compalin to the Telecomunicastions ombusdsman.Via Onlinw form.They Contact vodaphone which have 10 clear working days to Contact you. I did this they never contav=cted me,so i Notified the TIO of this on the Morning of Day 13 and LO and Behold same afternoon i get 2 Sms from Vodaphone saying i can Opt out of mY contract and that a letter is to follow> Also that i can OPt out as early as Today.

15201 Someone from QLD thinks the report is Internet never works at 4 Feb 2011 11:05:12 AM

I am absolutely disgusted by the quality of service Vodafone provides. The internet never works continuously for more than 1 min or 2. My HD Desire got wifi or usb sharing of internet tethering, but it kept dropping off with Vodafone... I put my hubby's sim card from Optus, working fine with no problem!!!

Issue: Receive daily phone calls from my voice mail saying I have one new missed call. I work in the CBD of Darwin in a 9 story office building with panarama window views, my phone calls are diverting to my voice mail when reception is lost. Today I have had enough and rang VF to lodge an offical complaint, took me over 30mins to get my complaint through as they will log the case with their VF engineers, they advised this could take up to 15 days to complete. Been a VF customer for over 15 years or more, I am not getting for what I paid for on this Vodafone contract!! I really want out now!

I have been with Vodafone for about 6 years now and in the last 6 or so months the service has deteriorated to the point that I get texts and voice mails about 4 days after people have sent them, I constantly have "no Service" and "searching" I am unable to phone anyone; i finish work at about 3am i have to turn my mobile off and on again a number of times just to get 1 bar to make a call that will fail about 6 times to let someone know what im on the way home. My monthly bill comes in at around $300 as i go over my $79 cap due to "call fail" which means a 10 minute call could turn into a 30-40 minute call depending on how many times my phone shows "no service". I got so sick of my iPhone 4 contract that i went and brought another mobile with another carrier and i spend an extra $30-$60 a month just so i have a mobile that works so the next best thing redirect my calls to my other number and add all my contacts in that phone if i want to break my contract i was told today i would have to pay about $2000 soo soo disappointed with vodafone

After having issues with 3, was offered to migrate from 3 to Vodafone for the duration of my contract. This was a mistake. My wife's number ported in 2 hrs, my number took 12 days, and was only ported following the TIO contacting Vodafone. The issues turned out to be the staff incorrectly inputting my SIM card number, two digits were transposed. No some 3 weeks later, I still am unable to access myVodafone.

At home, the 3G connection stopped working last night, went to edge, then to 2G, then to no service. Then returned over the next hour. What use is a data capable phone if there is no connection.

I'm on the phone with vodafone and they are telling me that I have to pay a cancellation fee as I have 5 mths left on my contract - Yet I have to pay an exit fee of $475 as I'm breaking a contract eventhough they are provding me with crap service.

Vodafones customer service over the phone makes me sick. I cant count the amount of times ive been hung up on. Ive called them countless times about reception and billing problems and after hearing my problem the put me on hold for about half n hour to an hour and then hang up on me. And you know what happens when i call back to complain about being hung up on... You got it, HUNG UP ON AGAIN! And can i just say "Lara" is the most annoying thing ever!!! Shes the last thing an angry customer wants 2 hear. Telling me to go to a quite area.. Hell No!!! AND... I feel like everytime i try and send the free msg to get my account balance its unavailable.

I have been with Vodafone for about 6 years now and in the last 8 or so months the service has deteriorated to the point that I get texts and voice mails about 4 days after people have sent them, I constantly have "no Service" and "searching" I am unable to phone anyone; i finish work at about 3am i have to turn my mobile off and on again a number of times just to get 1 bar to make a call that will fail about 6 times to let someone know what im on the way home. My monthly bill comes in at around $300 as i go over my $79 cap due to "call fail" which means a 10 minute call could turn into a 30-40 minute call depending on how many times my phone shows "no serivce". I got so sick of my contract that i went and brought another mobile with another carrier and i spend an extra $30-$60 a month just so i have a mobile that works so the next best thing redirect my calls to my other number and add all my contacts in that phone if i want to break my contract i was told today i would have to pay about $2000 soo soo disappointed with vodafone

so i have to admit for the last couple of weeks i've actually managed alright services.. i'm one of the lucky few. Had a couple of hiccups with the 3g and push msging.
and prior to that i put another complaint here about the fact that i can't call or receive calls from 4 different handsets that all show full bars of reception.
anyway so today i was sitting in a training seminar for the whole day... no 3g reception at all despite the fun telling me otherwise...
i've now been trying to use my 3g for the last ... 90 minutes but still nothing...

i reckon that we should define vodafail as:
failures that cross state or national boundaries, kinda like epic fails -.-

15057 Someone from NSW thinks the report is Read This at 1 Feb 2011 02:40:09 PM

Vodafone customer service is intolorable. I went to a branch in Broadway shopping center to transfer a contract of pocketwifi to someone else but they told me you should do it by phone. you better know that one should wait at least an hour to get to an operator on the phone. I also try to find an option on answering machine but it does not exist.
So, finally I was disappointed and I am still paying the price of choosing a wrong operator

14982 Someone from Somewhere else thinks the report is World problem with poor service at 30 Jan 2011 09:08:49 PM

Its interesting to see ,that the problem is world wide , I live in SA and was also on Vodafone there, Unfortunately , the complaints I read on this site are the same as what we had in SA.
Dropped calls, poor signal 3G problems etc... It looks as if they don't get there act together world wide . I am now in NZ and have a similar problem ,I got wireless after being told there was coverage in my area,

However they failed to inform me that I would have to wait 6 months for a line at the exchange!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and the consolation prize is .........I will not be charged until I get it!!!!!!!! THIS IS 2011 PEOPLE ...... WHO WAITS FOR 6 MONTHS FOR WIRELESS.. I can change it to DIAL UP ...........what planet did this employer fall off!!!!!!
I have a T stick and this does not help either .........its SLOWWWWWW.

Vodafone straight admitted to me that there was not going to be any network improvements in Hobart/Tasmania, and released me from my contract. I was a Vodafone customer for nearly 5 years , when they released the 3g service in hobart and surrounding area's it just went to shit ,

I have been with Vodafone for 4 years now and in the last 6 months the service has deteriorated to the point that the ACCC should be investigating if this company is fit to stay in business. I get texts and voicemails days after people have sent them, I contstantly have "no Service" and I am unable to phone Lara on 1512 to get an update on my cap usage due to "technical difficulties". I want to put in simple terms what all this means to me. I am a mum of 2 teenage children living on the Central Coast of NSW. The 17 yo attends school in Sydney and I have to pick him up from the train at different times. The 14 yo works at an Ice Cream shop sometimes finishing at 11.30 at night. Due to the lack of service from Vodafone my children are often left at train stations unable to contact me, or if they finish work early they cant contact me to pick them up. I cannot tell you the stress it puts me under constatnly texting my child to see if they made it work, or are on a particular train and have no reply - for days! Sometimes I just go and sit at the train station as I have no idea if they are on the train or not. I am on a $49 cap, $69 cap and $79 cap on one bill. That is $200 a month I pay to Vodafone so I can be totally frustrated and stressed. THis month my bill was $364 as my son went over his cap as every time he texts or rings 1512 it says "we cannot process your request due to technical difficulties". The recent privacy breach was the last straw. It is a disgrace that this company is still in busines and signing up new customers. As I sit here and type this my phone says "No Services"so I cannot contact my 14yo to see if she is finished work yet so she will just have to walk home. And I am paying money for this! I cant even ring Customer Care to complain as I have no service. Yet if I go into a store they tell me they cannot help and to call Customer Care!! I am so frustrated and do not know where to turn.
My childrens safety is jeopardised and my life is so much more stressful than necessary due to the fact that I unfortunatley have Vodafone as my mobile provider.

I have called vodafone and been instore many times to correct an issue with my internet times being very slow and poor.

I have taken screen shots showing how it took 6 minutes to load google.com.au within a 3G area with almost full signal.

I have also shown them how my phone can change from full 3G to full Edge to NO SERVICE in less than a minute in the Brisbane CBD...WTF!!!

Well customer service fobbed it off to be my phone (iPhone4), but i have already had my phone checked at the Apple Store and its working fine.

NO DEAL...

Next step was go see the Vodafone Store staff for another insight on why my phone isnt doing acceptable broadband speeds.

They told me it was my sim card....so they changed that and then did the *google.com.au* test on my phone....took over 2 mins to load the page with almost full 3G signal.

The staff could only answer by telling me it was a network issue and will be fixed by March 2011...im not sure how to say this...but its been happening since Nov 2010...i have contacted 1555 almost every week and get many different answers...but no solution.

I refuse to continue to pay for a service that isnt being provided and wont be waiting till March 2011...until they say its ALL FIXED...i have had too many broken promises and lies from vodafone to accept what is being said.

So...after many times...i still have this problem and im sure the solution will never happen...they just want me to go away.

Vodafone and the biggest bastards. I rang the TIO and was let out of my contract as I couldn't run my business as reception wasn't working in the middle of Sydney City. Now they have lodged a credit default against me and I can't borrow money from the bank for my family. I hate this company so much. They are the biggest liars and cheats and now I have no choice but to spend money on a solicitor to attempt to rectify an unfair default aginst me which would last for 5 years.

I HATE VODAFONE! I have no reception all the time. Internet is slow. Vodafone told me they had great covarage around Australia (boy they were wrong!) I cant wait till my contract runs out so I can change companies!

27 Jan 2011 12:57:24 PM: Or you could get out of your contract early, penalty free :)

Check out the "How To Complain" link at the top of the forums. Follow all of the steps and you shouldn't have a problem.

I hate vodafone so much if i try to get in call my mum it doesnt work and im 12 so i need to be able to ring her in case some thing happens and then if i try text my friends it doesnt work nothing works with vodafone thats why im changing to some thing that does work if you feel to the same way i do. change you dont have to stay with vodafone

The reception in the area of which I reside is appalling. I am greatly dissapointed with the amount of phone calls where I find myself talking to myself until I pull the phone away from my ear to see the background of my phone. The number of times that I receive the frustration of having to recall the person back and suffer another connection fee of an outrageous amount. The monthly caps are great value, however the quality of what is received is pathetic (terrible reception and connection).

Spent 43 minutes this morning because;
1- Off Air for 1hour (SOS ONLY).
2- Missed call without the phone having rung.
3- 7x msgs come through at once due to no network.
4- Poor reception.

All in 2 days. Went trough 3 CSOs, the third one telling me they will put through an investigation (again) and it will take 4 days for results.

Got home to find wife on the phone with Vodafone, with her Lost Network issues. She got them to put an investigation through (was advise it would take 5 days). They kept insisting that she needed to get a new SIM from a VFH shop, even when she told them 3 times she had already done so three weeks ago, and it actually made the issue worse, hence the reason for the call. total time on phone = 1hr 34mins.

Writing a long letter to VFH Accounts, VFH Client Services, VFH CEO to cancel contract by mutual consent, see how that goes...

For the past 10 weeks i have not been able to recive one text/sms. i have been a loyal Vodofone customer. But this is to much. I called them up 10mintues ago and the call lasted for 9mins and they kept lying to me. Then they give me some lame customer servive Bull Shit (sorry for my profanity but if you cant recive sms for 10weeks what would you be in.)

This is way to much time being wasted i give up on Vodofone now. There has been over 12Thousand complaints so far about their network problems this is to much time to move on to either Optus or telestra.

Vodofail

24 Jan 2011 06:32:33 PM: Since the Vodafone / 3 'merger' all of 3's customers are now using VF towers. the towers cannot cope with the increase demand for data etc and that is why your calls / connections are dropping out. You are entitled to exit your contract without penalty if they cannot deliver the service you signed up for. Remember to say that you are unable to connect anywhere including outdoors! good luck

I recently signed up to Vodaphone unaware of all these turmoils as it seems my previous service provider 3 has been eaten by Vodaphone. Since I have had increadibly bad call drops. Sometimes it doesn't even connect. Net browsing is so unreliable on my new Samsung Galaxy S phone that I even begin to hate Samsung products. I tried to speak to customer rep but was put on hold for 43 minutes exactly before I decided to hang up. I had it on speaker phone and watched TV and literally I was still on hold after the 30 min episode of South Park. My brother's service whose contract will end up in 6 months will not be signing up with Vodaphone period. I have had frustrations with phone/network providers of various sorts over 10 years or so but never have been so frustrated with a single company as this one.

9 Feb 2011 01:50:33 PM: I fell alseep when i was on hold waiting for them for 3.5 hours!

14446 Someone from NSW thinks the report is CUSTOMER SERVICE MEANS NOTHING TO ME at 24 Jan 2011 01:53:00 PM

I have had nothing but problems with vodaphone. I signed up 2 weeks ago. it took them 5 days to connect my service and when they finally did the service was shocking and the phone had many issues such as freezing, slow internet, service issues and battery doesnt last me 3 hours. I complained and complained until I finally said give me a Different phone or cancel my contract. the gentleman on the other end (supervisor) advised me that it could'nt be done. Even though I am paying $65 a month on a top of the range handset. I advised him customers come first, in which he replied THAT MEANS NOTHING TO ME.. he then advised he would call me back on monday. still waiting for my call back which was a week ago. I dont know what to do as I am paying for a phone and service I am not using. I reported it to the obudsman and stil waiting on a reply. VODAFONE IS THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE BEEN WITH.. and i worked for them for 2 years until august. there phone service is shocking and the customer service is even worse. any ideas? email back at (PERSONAL DETAILS REMOVED)

Vodafone is so incompetent, after being disconnected without any reason, I tried to solve the problem over the phone. After I have spoken to 3 people I only was told that I will be connected to a 4th person and this in 1.5 hours mainly spent in the queue. Incredible. I wasn't even able to explain my problem.

I have suffered for the last 6 weeks with extremely slow BroadBand speeds in my area (Greenbank, Qld). Mostly lack of access to 3G When it does actually connect to 3G, of the 10 or so tests i have done, returns 50 to 150k speed.... not really broadband!!

14365 Someone from NSW thinks the report is Service will improve in 3 to 6 months? Let's vote 'Y' or 'N' at 23 Jan 2011 09:26:59 PM

I'm calling for a vote to measure customer confidence in Vodafone. I'm with vodafone and have been having lots of issues, but I am hoping things will change fir the better. So what do you think? Yes, it will change or No, it won't or may remain the same (say in the next 6 months even)

Lately Vodafone coverage has become especially woeful. It has never been particularly good but now I cannot get coverage at my desk at work, struggle to get it at home or most places I go. I have 3gb of data on my plan but simply cannot get the coverage to use it.

I dont know if vodafone realise that they need customers to run their business? No customers = no business everyone should just boycott them they are a waste of our time and money. The problem is they do most of the advertising and its aimed at younger people andn their caps make life easier, until you sign up with them and realise you should have went to telstra (who hardly advertise as much as voda that ive noticed) maybe if optus and telstra made themselves to look more user friendly we wouldnt have this vodafone problem

Seriously what is the point in calling up and all you get (after waiting the 45 minutes on hold) is someone that does not speak clear english being soo rude to you and reading off a prepared speech that ive heard so many times that I COULD WORK AT VODAFAIL...... Honestly the issues ive had in the past month is so frustrating, i never had any issues before i re-signed with a new contract and now all i want is out....

I am connected with Vodafone NZ on the G network and since July calls frequently drop out on phone the most embarrasing time was when I was speaking to a potential employer after an interview. Until I saw this website I was on the understanding it was my Nokia phone yet all the Nokia's I'd had previously were good. So now I will check if its network vs phone

Vodafone is extremely annoying company to deal with. On several occasions I have had absolutely no service for days at a time- every time I ring the customer service to get out of my contract, they won't allow me. I'm relying on my phone for work- it's just not acceptable.

It's not Vodafone. Shoud be called Can't-Connect-A-Phone Newtwork.
Within the last 6 months, I have noticed the newtwork is very poor, including the wirless broadband. I called, and was put through to my handset manufacturer, they believed it was phone manufacturer problem and it should be looked at by a technician.

Signed contract with Voda on 18/12/2010. Constantly have issues with 3G connection. The connection is very weak, and it is on and off all the time. No matter I am home (Parramatta area) or at work (City CBD), 3G connection is just useless. Now I totally turned 3G off on my phone, which means I will never finish using the 2G data that I'm paying for every month.

I have recently got a iPhone4 and have been unable to use the 3G function on Voda network, if i am stationary in one spot under a vodafone tower that has 3G hanging off it there is no issues, but move just a couple of hundred meters away and your 3G signal changes to Edge signal and you loose 3G.
Vodafone has about 6 months to get its act together or it will be a business with no customers.